12 lessons across 4 modules · 3 free
The free foundation track. What a data center actually is, how power and cooling work at a high level, and the vocabulary of tiers, redundancy, and efficiency metrics.
What Is a Data Center?
The building, the people, and the four subsystems every facility is built around.
Power & Cooling 101
Follow a watt from the utility substation to a server, and follow the heat back out of the building.
Tiers, Redundancy & Key Metrics
Decode N+1 vs 2N, the Uptime Institute tier system, availability math, and PUE.
How a construction project becomes a trustworthy critical facility: the five commissioning levels, functional and integrated systems testing, and the documentation that proves it.
The Five Levels of Commissioning
Why commissioning exists, the L1–L5 framework, and who does what on a Cx team.
Running Level 4 & 5: Load Banks, Failure Injection, and IST
What actually happens during functional and integrated testing — scripts, load banks, pull-the-plug, and the scenarios that catch real defects.
Cx Documentation, Issue Logs & Turnover
The paper trail that makes testing real: issue management, turnover packages, and the handoff from construction to operations.
Running the building: the SOP/MOP/EOP procedure system, maintenance strategy and CMMS discipline, and how mature sites manage incidents, changes, and capacity.
Operating Procedures: SOPs, MOPs & EOPs
The procedure hierarchy that keeps human error from becoming downtime, and how to write documents people actually follow.
Maintenance Strategy & the CMMS
Preventive, predictive, and reliability-centered maintenance; the tests that matter for batteries, generators, and switchgear; and running a CMMS with integrity.
Incident, Change & Capacity Management
What happens when things go wrong, how changes get made without breaking things, and how operators know when the building is full.
Engineering depth: electrical topologies from substation to rack, cooling systems including liquid, and the innovations reshaping design in the AI era.
Electrical Architecture: Utility to Rack
Substations, UPS topologies (2N, distributed redundant, catcher), busway vs PDU distribution, and the voltage decisions shaping modern designs.
Cooling Systems in Depth: Air, Water & Liquid
Chilled-water plants and economization, containment and fan walls, and the liquid-cooling spectrum from rear-door to direct-to-chip to immersion.
Innovation: AI Densities, Storage, SMRs & the Grid
How AI is rewriting design assumptions, and the energy innovations — BESS, fuel cells, SMRs, grid-interactive operation, heat reuse — defining the next decade.
Pro unlocks commissioning, operations, and detailed specs & innovation — the material practitioners actually get hired and promoted on.